Improvement in steam cae-beakes



T. & H, HOPPER.

Car Brake:

No. 69,437 Patented Oct. 1, 1867.

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Letters Patent No. 69,437, dated October 1, 1867A IMPROVEMENT IN STEAM GAR-BRAKES.

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TO ALL WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

Be it known that we, THOMAS HOPPER and 'HA'iFiELb Horrun, of the city of Newark, in the county of Essex, and State of New-Jersey, have invented certain Improvements in Brakes for Railroad Cars; and we do hereby declare the following to be a full and exact description of the same, reference being had herein to the drawings that accompany: this specification and make part of the same.

The improvement consists in the manner of making a continuous connected brake through a whole train of cars, which the engineer can operate instantly as quick as he could blew his whistle for two cars to have their brakesapplied, as in ordinary trains, there being only a fireman and one brakeman allowed to one train of cars. The drawing represents two cars with the brakes and their connections.

A is a sliding rod with a flat head, each car having one at either end. A chain, B, passing over sheave-pulleys C and C is fast to the tail or inner end of the rods A, so that pushing the one in necessarily pulls the other out. These chains are so adjusted that the fiat heads on the rods A of two cars shall press together. There being room between the cars and springs attached to the ordinary bumpers, of course there is a continuous varying or changing of the distance, and in consequence thereof the chains will be tightening or loosening as the cars approach or recede from each other. Provision is made to take up what is technically-termed lost motion, by theadditjon of sliding rods D, which are connected by link and pins E, and are placed under the bumpers F, to be connected by their pins at the same time as the bumpers are connected. lfpon the rods the sheave-pulleys O are made adjustable, being held in position on the rods D by the set-screws a. As these rods D move with every motion of the cars, they carry the pulleys with them, and preserve the necessary tightness of the chains to insure a continuous pressure on the flat heads of the rods A. At each end of the car a lever is suspended, with its support on the bar that has on its ends the brake-blocks b. To the upper end of the levers F a chain or rope of wire or fibrous material is made fast, connecting the two levers on each car. The

middle of this chain or rope G is secured to the middle of the chain B, betwecnthe two sheave-pulleys O, and a rod, 0, connects the two levers F at their lower ends, so as that when the top end of one of the levers is forced in, by operating the rods A, the top end of the other lever is pressed back against the frame of the ear, and the two lower ends are drawn together by the rod 0, bringing the brake-blocks b on each end tight to the wheels. It is intended that a small steam-cylinder be placed under the foot-board of the engineer of the train, opposite that flat head of the rod A that will be under the tender, so that an instantaneous direct pressure can be put upon all the brakes at once. It will be seen that instead of a pull upon the main rods A to operate the brakes, we give thereto a receding movement.

We do not broadly claim sheave-pulleys, rods, or chains, but what we do claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The combination of the sliding rods A and D with the pulleys C and C, chains B and rope Gr, when arranged to operate the brake-levers F in the manner and for the purpose herein described.

2. The sliding rods Dand adjustable pulleys C, whenconstructed and arranged in the manner and for the purpose herein set forth.

THOMAS HOPPER, HATFIELD HOPPER.

Witnesses W. M. Goonnvc, D. H. CRAWFORD. 

